Insights from the seat of a John Deere

A friend of mine, who owns a lawn mowing business, asked me if I wanted to do some work for him while he went away on holiday. I said “Yes, thank you”, as I looked forward to riding on a big John Deere lawn mower while listening to my IPOD. Little did I know how much of a challenge that job would be. It wasn’t the mowing that was the challenge. It was one of the other employees that was.

He was in his mid to late 20’s, knew everything and had done everything, was always right and talked to me like I was incapable of doing anything right, on top of that he was negative, arrogant and narcissistic. The kind of guy everybody wants to work with. At least that was my experience of him. (Gee I’m not judgmental or self righteous eh?)

I felt that what I needed to do was to look for things that I liked about him. The first thing that came to mind was, he is an opportunity for me to grow. Then it hit me, “boy that sounds holier than thou”. YUCK! “Oh my. . . no. . . it can’t be . . . he can not be like me?” I am NOT like that!!! (Hmmm, maybe my experience of him says more about me than it does about him)

The things I saw in him that bothered me, may or may not be present in my character and one thing is for sure, I am no better than him. I have my own faults and flaws. I’m not perfect, so who am I to expect perfection from others. I would like people to extend me grace and have patience with me as I grow and mature. Which in turn, means choosing to extend grace and patience to others.

So I can choose to be offended by what I deem “wrong” in him or realize that there is a bit of me in Him (or Him in me) and extend grace; which would benefit both of us.

Shane

4 responses to Insights from the seat of a John Deere

be interesting when there is a part 2 and results 🙂
i have that same conversation in my head frequently.
Where did i get my programming that is easier and faster to judge, rather than simply accept someone for who they are right now.
These holidays I have seen ‘our kids’ accept others first and play with someone new until an experience about the new friend tells them otherwise. Its amazing to watch.

So why is it I have it up side down the wrong way?
I have a subconscious that is slowly being re programmed but there are some fairly big groves to re work